The journey of the widow Geertje Cornelis and her six children to New Amsterdam in the summer of 1661 is a familiar starting point for everyone researching the Vanderhoof name. Andrew J.Provost includes a section on the Van Der Hoeven
Family in "The Early Settlers of Bushwick" (1949) and this is developed further in Wilson Ledley's "New Netherland's familes (1959)".

The patronymics of the three sons of Geertje indicated that their father's name had been Cornelis. As the oldest of the three sons was named Gijsbert, presumably for his paternal grandfather, it was possible that the father of the family,
who had died in the Netherlands before the voyage, was named Cornelis Gijsbertsen. Other Albany sources revealed that that Geertje and her sons, Cornelis and Jan, had adopted the surname Van Der Hoeven by 1683 when they were recorded
as members of the Albany Reformed Church and used a number of phonetic variant spellings around this time.

Geertje uses her presumed maiden name of Van Fulpen (ffulpen) in her will of 1684 in which she
mentions her house 'situate opposite the island occupied by Mr Marte Gertzen.

Research in the Netherlands was organized in the hope that some traces of the original Van Der Hoeven family could be found from the few facts that we had. A visit to the Beesd Dutch Reformed Church revealed that the registers for the
mid 1600's no longer existed, probably removed during the time of Napoleon. Members of the local history society (The Historishe Kring of West-Betuwe) and the Gelderland Archives were very helpful and a local historian helped decode
the difficult handwriting and archaic Dutch of the 17th century records.

The Central Bureau of Genealogy in The Hague has a register of church members of Beesd 1644-1687 and this register showed that Geurtgen Cornelis, widow of Cornelis Gijsbertsen, was a member of the Dutch Reformed Church in Beesd in 1656.
In 1659 Jantgen Cornelis, daughter of Cornelis Gijsbertsen, is also recorded as a church member. This encouraging beginning at least gave some hope that the family had some connection with the town of Beesd so the next stop was the
Regional Archive of West-Betuwe in Geldermalsen

This regional archive at Geldermalsen holds the registers of deeds of the court of aldermen(Schepen) of Beesd and Rhenoy 1634-1661 which mentioned a Cornelis Gijsbertsen as an alderman of Beesd in the years 1637, 1639-1640, 1642-1648 and
1650-1651. Land transactions, wills and other legal contacts had to be witnessed by aldermen, and Cornelis Gijsbersen's name appears in court records for these years, as do the names of members of the Van Vulpen family.

Also, there are several deeds showing that the alderman, Cornelis Gijsbertsen, bought and sold property in Beesd during the 1643-1651 period. His full name is mentioned in two deeds of 1651 as Cornelis Gijsbertsen van der Hoeven and that
his wife was called Guertgen Cornelis van Vulpen.

In 1644 a man called Cornelis Gijsbersen van Hagenstyen bought a house and yard in Beesd on the north side of the Steenstraat. Later on, in 1651, Cornelis Gijsbertsen van der Hoeven sold a house and yard in Beesd at the Oosteind. The Oosteind
is situated on the north side of the Steenstraat (the eastern end of the present Voorstraat), so the events of 1644 and 1651 could very well concern the same house. This possibility is supported by the fact that a man called Cornelis
Willemsen (Schipper) was a neighbour in both years.

If this were true, Cornelis Gijsbersen van Hagenstyen and Cornelis Gijsbertsen van der Hoeven could well be the same person and it is possible that Cornelis Gijsbertsen van der Hoeven was called "van Hagestyen" because he (or his ancestors)
came from the nearby village of Hagestein.

The information fitted well with what we knew about the Van Der Hoeven family in America, including Geertje's maiden name under which she made her will.

The office of Alderman could only be held by someone over the age of 25 which infers a latest date of 1612 for Cornelius' birth. The office of Schepen may have had an hereditary aspect, so it may be that older generations of the Van Der
Hoeven family may also have held this office. Clearly, Cornelis had died by 1656 so the possibility of his death during the voyage to America cannot be true.

Also interesting is the church membership record for Jantgen. She would have been at least 18 to be eligible, so may have been the eldest child of the family. She is unmarried in 1659, and a marriage before the family's departure in 1661
may have prevented her migration.

The Homburg is a tract of land to the northeast of the town on the road to Culembourg and the Frederiksakker is a section of land in Beesd owned by the Marienwaerdt estate, designated as tithe land.

Children

Children of Gilbert Henry Vanderhoof and Mary Dowen were as follows:

i Francis H. Vanderhoof, born 21 Jun 1824 in , , New York, USA; died 1 Apr 1897. He married(1) Loretta Stanton, born 1839 in , , New York, USA;(2) Harriet Bennett, born 19 Mar 1846; died 12 Jan 1897. Notes: may be
the one listed in the 1894 Civil War Veterans Census of Muskegon county, Michigan. Francis Vanderhoof of Aetna, Mecosta, Michigan. Francis left to go west before William was born He never returned. 1860 census Chester, Ottawa, Michigan
1870 census West Chehalen Pct., Yamhill, Oregon.

ii Harriet Vanderhoof, born 27 Oct 1825; died 1843.

iii Esther Vanderhoof, born 22 Nov 1827 in Springvale, York, New York, USA; died 8 Jan 1910. She married James McNeal.